Unofficial news and tips about Google

May 15, 2010

Android Stats

Less than a week before Google I/O, the conference where Google is expected to unveil Android 2.2 (FroYo), it's clear that Google's mobile operating system is no longer an experiment. Android is now a popular software that runs on millions of devices and it's part of a growing ecosystem.

Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, said that "65,000 mobile phones powered by Google's Android operating system are being shipped every day" and that "Android is now being used on 34 mobile devices in 49 countries".

According to a NPD research, Android is the second most popular smartphone operating system in the US in terms of units sold in the first quarter of 2010 (28%), after Blackberry OS (36%). Apple's iPhone OS dropped to the third position (21%).

Cédric Beust, a former Google engineer who worked on the Android team, says that Android's growth is surprising:

"I don't know what's the most surprising: how ambitious that goal was four years ago or how far Android has come today. It's hard to believe that Android shipped its first device about a year and a half ago and at that time, Apple had already sold more than ten million iPhones. Who would have guessed that it would only take Android eighteen months to catch up and pass the iPhone in market share? In this short period of time, we've gone through four major releases (and many, many minor ones, some of which you probably never even heard of), and each new version has been a major milestone that got everyone on the team incredibly excited. FroYo is no exception, prepare to be blown away by what you will see very soon."

8 comments:

Alex, you misunderstood the stats.NPD report does NOT state that Android is now 2nd most popular platform.NPD report talks about sales trends, not market share.It just talks about how fast different platforms are selling.Yes, right now Android is selling faster than iPhone, however that does not make its market share larger than iPhone's.Please correct your article to report accurate information.

"The Android operating system (OS) continued to shake up the U.S. mobile phone market in the first quarter (Q1) of 2010, moving past Apple to take the number-two position among smartphone operating systems, according to The NPD Group, a leading market research company. NPD's wireless market research reveals that based on unit sales to consumers last quarter the Android operating system moved into second position at 28 percent behind RIM's OS (36 percent) and ahead of Apple's OS (21 percent)."